Country Harp and City Life
I met Juan Carlos, 18, on my first day of mariachi classes at the School of Mexican Music in Mexico City. We were pretty much friendly strangers for the first two months, since we sat on opposite sides of the classroom—me in the neatly-arranged row of guitarists in the front, him with the pack of macho guitarrón players who roamed freely in the back.
Juan Carlos’ natural knack for music could have made him the envy of the entire class. But he was way too likable, always greeting people with a warm saludo as they walked in the door, or helping them decipher their sheet music, to bring on anything but fuzzy feelings from the rest of us. What most impressed me was that despite his confidence, Juan Carlos was as new to the guitarrón as I was to Mexico.
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Swine Time
Since I now live a few hours away from the capital, Iʼm lucky to not have much to report
on the Swine Flu outbreak. Itʼs still business as usual in Xalapa, though this morning I
couldn’t help but gulp when I saw a group of surgical-masked ladies power walking
towards me in the park.
However, some of my friends are doing a great job of capturing aspects of the Mexico City frenzy that you wonʼt see on the news. Check out some of their photos and blogs below:
New Town, New Guitar
Since moving to Xalapa, Veracruz, I have been studying with a new music teacher: Ramón Gutiérrez of the band Son de Madera. He holds classes in the same workshop where he builds his studentsʼ instruments, like this jarana.
Greetings from Xalapa, the capital of the state of Veracruz! This is where I’ll wrap up the
final months of my Fulbright year (which, for the record, is going by way too fast) by
looking at two very vibrant, and very different, styles of regional music: the son jarocho
and danzón. Iʼm a few weeks into my son jarocho lessons (along with a bunch of 11-
year-olds) and have just brought home my new jarana, a small guitar hand-carved by
my teacher.
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Men in Tights
Here’s a clip from my trip to Guanajuato, a city known for its colorful winding streets and
narrow alleyways. Getting there from Mexico City only took five hours, but when I
stepped off the bus I felt like I’d been through a time machine. The architecture alone
makes you feel dizzy, visually stacking centuries of colonial Mexican history all the way
up the hillsides.
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Beirut comes to Mexico City
Beirut’s Zach Condon and Perrin Cloutier warm up for their debut at the Auditorio Nacional in Mexico City
The band Beirut hails from Brooklyn, NY, but they’ve gained international fame for what they describe as an “old-world” sound. The mastermind and frontman, 23-year-old New Mexico native Zach Condon, built Beirut’s signature sound with influences from the Balkans and France. In Beirut’s latest EP, March of the Zapotec, they explore an entirely “new world” of musical riches: the Mexican brass of Oaxaca. On the afternoon of their debut in Mexico City, I talked to some members of the band to learn more about this ambitious project. They explained how their exposure to Mexican music broadened their sound, and discussed the contentious issue of “authenticity” that comes with playing music from other cultures.
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